Panthers chase Warriors out of playoffs

Lapeer West wide receiver Jake Fenslau (#2) takes it to the Bay City Western defense. Fenslau scored both of the Panthers’ touchdowns in their 14-0 victory Friday night. LAPEER — After falling to Bloomfield Hills Lahser, 17-13, in round two of last year’s Michigan High School Athletic Association post-season tournament, the Lapeer West (9-1 overall, 8-1 Metro) varsity football team came out last Friday for their first round playoff matchup with Bay City Western (6-4, 5-2 Saginaw Valley) looking to make the rest of the state take notice. While the Warriors didn’t make it easy, the Panthers still managed to come out ahead, despite an ever-changing combination of wind and rain, winning, 14-0.

“We just held our composure and played great defense. We didn’t let them establish anything, and they were really tough against the run, so it wasn’t easy trying to get our inside ground game going,” said coach Mike Smith.

Panthers senior signal caller Nate Smith (#10) had two touchdown passes in his team’s first-round, 14-0, playoff win Friday night over Bay City Western. “We had to do little bit of everything under these conditions, even throw the ball a little bit. Fortunately that opened things up for us a bit. It was just a great game all around. We controlled the contest well, and I would have liked to have punched another score in, but that’s the way it goes.”

The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair dominated by defense until Nate Smith connected with Jake Fenslau on an 18-yard screen pass with just 55 seconds left to give West a 7-0 advantage after Preston Haggadone knocked home the point-after-attempt.

From there, West continued their defensive focus amid the unseemly weather conditions, even recovering a fumble at the Bay City Western 42-yard-line with 10:32 left in the second. The Panthers squandered that chance when it turned the ball over on downs less than five minutes later.

With just 51 seconds remaining before halftime, West called its second timeout on third-and-5, resulting in a late-hit penalty on a Smith run that not only sent him skidding to the asphalt of the track, but gave the Panthers a firstand goal from the six. After an incomplete pass on first down, Smith hit Fenslau in the flat for his second score of the night with just 36 seconds left in the half to put West up, 14-0.

“Nate Smith has been on varsity for three years. He makes good decisions and he knows where to go with the ball. He makes tough plays ,and he’s just a smart player that’s not afraid to throw the ball to any of our guys, whoever’s open. He got the job done and made some key scrambles. Our guys made some good catches out there, too,” said Smith.

“Jake Fenslau is one of our best all-around players. He’s a good runner, a good receiver and a really good defensive back. Because he’s one of our best overall players, we always want to get him the ball.”

After the break, West came out and played a fairly mistake-free half of football, but several oddities along the way kept the crowd in their seats until the end, including a missed field goal with under 90 seconds remaining in the third. Then, on fourth-and-6 at 5:03 of the fourth, West was called for encroachment. The Warriors capitalized on the penalty to keep their drive alive. Several plays later the Panthers seemed to have the game wrapped up on an interception, but Bay City Western chopped the ball loose to regain possession.

Several punts later the Warriors got one last chance at making some offensive noise with 1:59 left to play, but 47 second after that West picked the ball off yet-again to finally seal the deal.

“We’d have liked to have opened up the offense more, and I know they were packing the box, so we probably should’ve thrown it, but in conditions this slick you have to run the football,” Smith said. “The run game was something we were able to do and be pretty effective at. We had to be pretty tough out there, and we never let them establish a run game.”

Next up for the Panthers this Friday is a round-two home game against Midland (9- 1, 6-1 Saginaw Valley), which beat Flushing (6-4, 2-1 Big Nine) 31-21 in the first round on the strength of an 11-point first quarter.